My analogy is race cars compared to street cars. If anyone knows any gear heads, wrench monkeys, then you know they just build fast cars because they can. I imagine the guys who actually build computers at apple are the same kind of wrench monkeys. They just can. My question is: what are they making that's so secretive? Some kind of Ford Taurus? Or some kind of Formula 1. Surely they aren't just surfing facebook or the cow on an ipad3.

[Richard Herd]"If anyone knows any gear heads, wrench monkeys, then you know they just build fast cars because they can. I imagine the guys who actually build computers at apple are the same kind of wrench monkeys."

I suspect you’re right. Apple is big on the ‘halo effect’ and that applies to technology innovation as much as to iPods, iMacs, iPads. As I understand it, they’re a co-developer of Thunderbolt with a potential for 100 Gbps speeds with fibre optics. PCIe 3.0 just around the corner and I imagine other developments that are still a secret. Look at the amount of research IBM does on new technology. Things that may be at least five to ten years away from commercial application but astounding advances.

If I ran a company with about $100B in cash and securities, I think I could afford to stay in the game for the joy of discovery and progress. Granted Apple may be selling less Mac Pros as the iMac ascends in terms of units and capabilities, but at some point, they must care about the high-end (and are not willing to leave it to HP’s servers). A company with 40% margins overall has some flexibility for an individual line’s margin.

Car companies that sell cars that we buy spend a lot on developing race cars only a few can afford because that is the platform for technology innovation that often trickles down the chain. Jobs’ mantra to do a few things well, means Apple isn’t building rocket ships or knitting needles. Apple’s ‘knitting’ is building electronic products with which people interact to do other tasks including watching TV shows and 'liberal arts' creation. I think it encompasses mobile devices (that’s what post PC means, just that mobile platforms are ascending in importance but are not the only platform), desktop devices for the masses, and workstations (for those who need a race car). It would seem the X-Serve and Xsan may have been something Apple decided others could do better, but I doubt the Mac Pro will soon be added to that list.

[Erik Lindahl]"It scary but I think if Apple put 100% effort on iOS-devices today they get X million back from that. If they put 100% effort on MacPro's they'd get perhaps 1/10th of that back."

I think 1/10th is way too generous. Apple sold more iDevices in 2011 than they sold Macs in the entire history of the company! And those devices are going to generate 10's of billions of dollars in revenue in App Store sales alone.